Learning From the Best
by yanderefawn
Summary: Ash has always had a bit of a self-esteem problem (something that Cheryl never stops trying to help with) and he's never thought of himself as anything special. However, when Lillian moves into Bluebell, she might be able to show him how much he means to everyone around him and bring back the vibrant boy everyone used to know. Feat. Chubby/Depressed!Ash
1. Chapter 1

"My brother is the best farmer in the world, no one is better than him!"

Just as those words left her mouth I felt the usual flood of emotions—pride, modesty and awkwardness flow through my system. Compliments were always hard for me to accept because, well… Didn't you have to be someone really important to receive them? It was either that or someone was trying to get something from you or trying to cheer you up. With Cheryl, it was always the latter. Ever since I was diagnosed (non-professionally, of course so there was no guarantee that I was) with depression she'd stepped up her verbal game, constantly going on and on about how I was _so amazing_ the way I sheered the sheep or _the best_ at producing high-quality milk from the cows. It was a sweet attempt at flattery on her part but I knew better than to take the overkill praise from her too seriously.

Besides, I knew that if Cheryl spent more time around Kana or Cam she'd realize just how lame I was.

As she continued to boast about me—loudly, of course—to whoever had walked into the barn, I continued to stroke the cow in front of me, coaxing her to eat more of the feed. She would be due any day now and her calf needed the extra nutrients. I smiled to myself at the thought of another addition to my barn family. These animals were the only ones who didn't have some sort of ulterior motive when it came to their lives. They weren't out to hurt anyone or get something from them.

The cows were always my favorites. Their calm and unassuming demeanor matched my own perfectly and, when I was younger, I often found myself spending long amounts of time with them in preference to human interaction. This, of course, led to some of the village children associating me and my larger size to being a "cow" as well and made teasing mooing sounds in my direction while I ran errands for my mom. The nickname "Cowboy" didn't stick around too long since Cam had threatened to punch the next kid who called me that.

"Is he?"

I looked up from my petting and caught a glimpse of her amused blue eyes staring down at my little sister. It was Lilian, the newest addition to Town Bluebell as of last week. She'd come by before, meeting everyone in town, but I'd kept to myself. I figured she wouldn't want anything to do with me since I didn't have any direct relation to the business my mom and sister tended to.

"Yeah, he is," Cheryl confirmed with a nod of her head. She beamed up at Lillian and I knew that she'd earned her approval. "Just ask him anything about farming and he'll give you some great advice."

I really wanted to say something, to stop her from embarrassing me further, but I knew that I wouldn't be brave enough to say anything in front of a new person. She did seem amused by the whole ordeal so I doubt she took anything that Cheryl was saying seriously. Hopefully she'd leave before she caught sight of me in the back of the barn with a light flush over my cheeks.

"I think that I will," Lillian said, and all traces of amusement in her voice were gone. "I could use a bit of help getting Maribelle to cooperate."

I heard the sound of crunching straw as she approached me, having seen me from the front of the barn and I inwardly cursed myself. Of course she had seen me! I was too large for her _not_ to see!

She stopped on the other side of Cadence, our cow, and patiently waited for me to finish what I was doing.

"Hi," I said quickly—too quickly to where I wouldn't have been surprised if she hadn't caught what I said. "Umm... If there's something that you need, I'd head inside the shop. They should be open in about ten minutes and they'd be able to help you out more than I could."

She didn't say anything for a bit, but she continued to smile. "My name's Lillian," she said, completely ignoring what I had said. "I was wondering if you would help me out sometime? I've been having trouble getting my cow to cooperate with milking. I'm not sure that I'm doing it right, to be honest!" Lillian laughed, sheepishly brushing some of her light brown hair from her face.

I smiled nervously, not sure how to react. "I'm not sure I could be of much help," I said, and it was true. I didn't know the first thing about her cow but I was pretty sure that I could figure it out. "But if you'll give me a little bit of time I could come over and help you out."

"Oh…" she sighed, relief apparent in her voice. "Thank you so much. I've been swamped with all this new information—I've never lived on a farm before and I have a huge amount of respect for what you can do!"

I flushed at her words. She was almost as bad as Cheryl was when it came to flattery.

"I was nervous just talking to you, of course, because I barely know what I was doing and you're awfully cute and I just—Jeeze, now I'm having verbal diarrhea," she laughed again, although this one sounded a lot more nervous and forced. "Anyway, just swing on by after work? I'll be there all day trying to figure it out most likely."

She continued to talk but my mind had blanked out when she'd called me 'cute'. What on earth was she talking about? I was _fat_—I wasn't cute!

"Is that okay?" the corners of her lips twitched, looking at me for confirmation.

I blinked at her from over my cow's back, having tuned out what she'd said. "Um… This evening?" I asked. "I'll be done at three."

Lillian nodded quickly, removing her hand from where it nervously twisted in her hair. "Great!" she said with a grin. "I'll see you then." She turned out and quickly walked out of the barn, not even sparing a glance to Cheryl as she went.

I sighed to myself as I set down my brush. Why on earth had I just agreed like this? The me five minutes ago would have probably turned tail and ran. Maybe because she seemed as nervous as I was? Because I was…cute? Just thinking of that word in relation to me made my heart skip a beat and cause me to want to crawl into a hole and die. The whole situation was way too embarrassing and, by the look on Cheryl's face, I'd be forced to tell her everything.


	2. Chapter 2

Three pm came along faster than I'd anticipated—which was saying a lot since I'd been expecting time to fly when I wanted only for it to stay still. It always has a way of doing that. After finishing up the chores I had left to do on the animals, I headed inside and got myself a light snack of yogurt. This morning's encounter had left me without a big appetite but I didn't want to go without eating today because that'd just arouse suspicion in my mom and that was the last thing that I wanted to do.

I grabbed the small container of yogurt and quickly set it down at the table, sitting down in one of the wooden chairs and fishing out a spoon from the nearby drawer. I rubbed circles into my palm to try and heat it up again, I'd never been one for coldness.

"Cheryl tells me you have a date."

I nearly jumped out of my skin, but I'm used to my mom sneaking up on me like that. I'm a bit easily startled some days.

I shook my head and tore off the top of the container. "She's overreacting," I said quickly, though something inside told me otherwise—that perhaps I was the one overreacting in some way. "That new farm girl, Lillian, she just moved in and wants some pointers on taking care of the animals. It isn't anything serious, you know? And it most certainly isn't a date."

"Mm-hmm," my mom responded, her usual indicator that she knew better than to press the issue further. We'd had a few conversations about me in regards to dating and all of them had gone poorly.

I poked at the surface of the pink yogurt, frowning at it as I mentally beat myself up. Why did I always have to worry people? My mom had told me last time that the only reason I didn't have a partner as because I shut myself off from people. I didn't feel like I did but… I felt tears prickling at the edges of my eyes and I quickly wiped them away.

Hadn't Cam said the same thing before he left?

I took a large spoonful of the strawberry-flavored yogurt and stuffed it in my mouth, pushing the bad memory from my mind. He'd made it clear how he thought of me.

"I'm gonna head out after I finish doing dishes," I mumbled to both myself and mom as I finished off the rest of my snack.

My mom leaned over and picked up my spoon, putting it in our sink along with the other dishes from this morning. "No problem, I'll just finish them up. I'll bet Lillian is waiting for you already so you might as well hurry along and go see her."

"Thanks…" I said, standing up and pushing in my chairs. I stared down at the floor for a moment—all that I would allow myself to procrastinate, and then turned around and headed for the door. "I'll be back in about an hour and a half."

My mom nodded once, a confirmation that she had heard me and nothing more.

I picked up my blue lightweight jacket and swung it over my shoulder. It might be cold later with Bluebell's spring air usually being about sixty degrees Fahrenheit and I didn't want to be stuck at some stranger's house without my jacket in case she liked to keep it cold or something.

I walked down the road to where I knew the previously-vacant house was and kept my eyes trained firmly on the ground. I knew that no one would be out at this time since it was just after lunch rush and most everyone had returned to working but I still didn't want to run into anyone and cause trouble. It bothered me that I kept thinking this way but… How did you change something like your own thought process?

Finally I arrived in front of her house. It was small, only one story and, from the looks of it outside, only had one room as well. It was a standard farm house and reminded me of my own back in Bluebell town. It looked as though she didn't want to paint it, either, but that could have been because she just moved in and didn't have time for anything other than taking care of her animals.

I heard some muttered curses coming from the barn and I headed over in that direction, sticking my hands into my jacket pockets and keeping my head low so that my blonde fringe hung over my eyes.

"Ash?" Lillian called out as I entered the barn soon after. "Is that you? Oh thank goddess… I could really use a hand over here."

I blinked up at her. She really could use my help, it seemed. She was nearly backed up against the wall of the barn by the baby cow staring angrily at her as she held the milker in her left hand. I could have facepalmed.

"I can see your problem already," I said, exasperated. "She's not anywhere near full-grown yet! You can't milk a calf, you know." I knew I sounded a bit irritated as I walked towards her and kneeled down next to the angry cow, but really… Wasn't this sort of thing common knowledge?

Lillian flushed, her eyes growing wide. "R-Really? Oh jeeze, I'm even worse at this than I thought."

I looked up at her, suddenly internally panicking as tears welled up in her eyes. How the heck was I supposed to deal with a crying girl? I couldn't even deal with myself when I was crying!

"It's okay," I said quickly, looking back down at the cow and frowning. "I mean every beginner makes mistakes after all and I don't think she'll blame you for long for making them."

"Yeah… It's still pretty embarrassing though, don't you think?" Lillian said. "I don't even know why I'm here sometimes. I may have been better off in Konohana, you know?"

I sighed, standing up as the calf walked off, placated. It looked as though I'd have to help her out with her problems. She really didn't know what she was in for asking me for advice on how to live her life. Still, I needed to do the best I could.

**[a/n okay so chap two is done woooooo! It isn't going to be a long story, like just two more chapters I think. Sorry for crappy ending too, I just wanted to finish it up soon and get onto my next writing thing. Ash is a total cutie btwwwww] **


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